HONGKONG could become a centre for treating panic attacks under a scheme launched at the Queen Mary Hospital yesterday.
The head of the psychiatric department of the University of Hongkong, Professor Felice Lieh-mak, said people who suffered panic attacks went to psychiatrists after exhausting a host of other treatments, mostly for non-existent cardiac ailments.
''In the medical field, panic attacks are not very well recognised and for a long time it was considered to be a person who was hysterical, malingering or had a heart problem,'' she said.
About one in 20 Hongkong people are thought to suffer from panic attacks, which can occur quickly, reaching a crescendo in minutes and subsiding after half an hour.
Sufferers complain of heart palpitations, a feeling of suffocation, trembling, and faintness and often think they are having a heart attack, going to die or going crazy.
Dr Peter Lee Wing-ho, of the university's psychiatric department, said the symptoms were pervasive and debilitating, and the memory of previous attacks could prompt another.